Cristiano Ronaldo

[festa5]

Yeah you would think that but it’s not always the case, players move clubs with varying degrees of success, there is a school of thought that Messi is less effective at International level due to the players around him not being at the same standard as those at Barcelona, would the physical demands week in week out of the Premier League or Bundesliga allow him to be as effective ? Now he probably would be but we don’t know. Another way to look at it is this, Messi is a racehorse and has only ran over a mile on fast ground at Ascot, but won every time he’s ran, even beating the racehorse Ronaldo when they met, but Ronaldo is a has shown top class form on a variety of surfaces, over a variety of distances over different courses in different countries, they’re both great but for different reasons.

Agree it's a question mark and although I think very unlikely Messi would struggle in those circumstances (particularly playing for the best team in a pretty weak serie A) we'll never know for sure.

However, it doesn't really help prove Ronaldo is the better player, which some people claim it does. All it proves is that he has been able to do it in 3 countries. Credit it to him. But unless Messi moves, we'll never know if he'd have been equally as successful or not.

 

[JM14]

Yeah you would think that but it’s not always the case, players move clubs with varying degrees of success, there is a school of thought that Messi is less effective at International level due to the players around him not being at the same standard as those at Barcelona, would the physical demands week in week out of the Premier League or Bundesliga allow him to be as effective ? Now he probably would be but we don’t know. Another way to look at it is this, Messi is a racehorse and has only ran over a mile on fast ground at Ascot, but won every time he’s ran, even beating the racehorse Ronaldo when they met, but Ronaldo is a has shown top class form on a variety of surfaces, over a variety of distances over different courses in different countries, they’re both great but for different reasons.

Look at his record against English teams in the champions league. Do you really think he would struggle against the likes of Bournemouth, Norwich etc?

Argentina are awful at international level, yes they have some top players but the rest of the squad is made up of domestic players and bang average players from weaker leagues. Along with the issues they seem to have at management level they are never really going to win a world cup. Yes Ronaldo has a great record at international level but look at the sides where the majority of his goals have come.

 

[uberweiss]

"As is Messi, he's not exactly a saint either"

How can you say Messi is a diver? You clearly don't watch football. Just pretend that you do. He's the most "undivy" player I think I've ever seen given how much he gets kicked. Tries everything to stay on his feet. Crazy comment

 

[parnabyscrosses]

"As is Messi, he's not exactly a saint either"

How can you say Messi is a diver? You clearly don't watch football. Just pretend that you do. He's the most "undivy" player I think I've ever seen given how much he gets kicked. Tries everything to stay on his feet. Crazy comment

Messi has been known to dive but it's certainly not a trait of his, he normally does it when an opposition player or players have done numerous terrible challenges on him and he's receiving no protection from the ref. Agree he's one of the most honest players out there, unless Real Madrid are involved.

 

[Erimus74]

So basically you're saying he's not a cheat until he gets no protection from the ref & then he takes the lwa in to his own hands & cheats
While if they're playing Real Madrid he cheats regardless

I shouldn't have started this thread TBH, it wasn't a case of Messi v Ronaldo, it was simply something I'd watched when interviewed by Piers Morgan, he came across as an nice famiky bloke whose worked hard at where he is & with everything he's achieved & what I've seen of him then IMHO, he's the best around, if others think different fine I respect that

 

[American_Mary]

Agree it's a question mark and although I think very unlikely Messi would struggle in those circumstances (particularly playing for the best team in a pretty weak serie A) we'll never know for sure.

However, it doesn't really help prove Ronaldo is the better player, which some people claim it does. All it proves is that he has been able to do it in 3 countries. Credit it to him. But unless Messi moves, we'll never know if he'd have been equally as successful or not.

Absolutely, he may go to a club and find it difficult to adapt or settle, it does happen, I think he’d be a great whatever league he played in, but it would be a question mark until he has done it. His record against English clubs in England is decent but nothing like his record against English clubs in Spain, I’m not knocking Messi, I just don’t think there’s the gulf in effectiveness between him and Ronaldo that others see.

 

[Heam44]

Slightly off topic, but on the subject of diving, just because a player chooses to go down it doesn’t mean they’ve dived or cheated. Most players balance and agility is soo good that if they really didn’t want to go down it would be quite hard to put them down (with a slide tackle for example) but they have to go down voluntarily or they might not / probably won’t get a free kick even when the tackle/player committing the tackle hasn’t touched the ball but has done enough to stop the player with the ball from keeping it, said tackle could even be a blatant yellow/red but the refs don’t give them if the player doesn’t go down. It happens all the time.